A local authority responsible for maintaining an 8,500km highway network has revealed it does not use any of the council tax it collects from residents on road repairs, despite it being among residents’ top concerns.

North Yorkshire County Council’s highways executive member, Councillor Keane Duncan highlighted the authority’s decision to focus its spending on other areas after hearing further complaints about the parlous state of roads from elected community representatives.

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The authority has recognised for more than a decade that it faces a road repairs backlog running into hundreds of millions of pounds and has responded by prioritising routes.

In response to recent complaints, Cllr Duncan has started a tour of the county’s 89 electoral divisions.

Ripon councillor Andrew Williams said Cllr Duncan should to invite North Yorkshire’s MPs to join him on his “state of the roads tour”.

He said: “Pressure needs to be borne at government level as well to increase the settlement the county.”

Cllr Williams said some of the savings identified in local government reorganisation should be used for the repair of roads, which was residents’ number one complaint.

He added it would be of concern to residents that none of the council tax they paid was being used for highways maintenance.

He said: “I think they equate the council tax they are paying and the state of the roads.

“I think if we are identifying £67m of savings across the county, some of those need to be invested in our highway network. ”

Scarborough councillor Tony Randerson said he had spent years pressing the council for some roads to be resurfaced, but ones in certain areas, such as Scarborough and Selby, appeared to be lower on the priority list to those in the Harrogate and Knaresborough.

He said: “Becoming a unitary authority is not going to be good for places like Scarborough and Selby, and Eastfield particularly, because it is difficult enough now to get the necessary services.

"What’s it going to be like when it becomes ruled through Northallerton?”

Cllr Randerson described the state of the Overdale carriageway in Eastfield as “appalling, disgusting”, saying it had not been resurfaced for about 30-years.

The authority’s highways executive member, Councillor Keane Duncan, said during the recent election campaigns, residents’ road maintenance concerns had been among the leading issues raised on the doorstep.

He said: “We have a network of 8,500km of surfaced road.

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"Very roughly, with the budget we’ve got we can treat 300km annually, through a combination of surface dressing, resurfacing and reconstruction.”

Cllr Duncan said the government road repairs settlement for the county had been fixed at £40m for the next three years by the Department of Transport.

He said: “We currently do not supplement or support that £40m settlement with local council taxpayer money.

"None of the council taxpayers to North Yorkshire County Council goes into that road maintenance.

“Clearly, £40m this year will not deliver the same as what £40m would deliver in future years, so what I am trying to do is to ascertain – and obviously we have a very difficult financial climate – what we can do to get the same bang for our buck in future years. as this year, and exploring those opportunities.”

 

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